We were “wreathed” and given a small antique reproduction jar (with a running them of course). All got their picture taken with Jeff Galloway ! Everyone had a really great time.

Here are the pictures:

Apostolos Awards

We got on our cruise boat, and within the protected port it did not seem too bad. We finally got under way late after the boat was loaded up with other tourists. We took turns learning about island touring options, and there were sessions in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

We got going and after spending some time drinking coffee on the top deck I camped out at a table on the dining level. This was fully enclosed and protected from the wind. By this time we were on the open ocean and the cruiser was getting tossed around a bit. I was getting bored and decided to get out on the top deck again. Walking up to the bow, the wind was howling ! Marcela and Nancy were up there hanging onto the rail, but not too successfully ! I got the video camera going and watched them get blown around. It was really funny ! The boat hit some sort of swell and started rocking violently. Deck chairs starting sliding and falling over. Some of the people sitting in chairs on the top deck fall backwards out of their chairs. The boat made a hard turn out of the wind.

Not too long after, there was an announcement that we were turning back. We would skip the first two islands, and return to the third which we had already passed. Disappointing of course, but besides the rough weather I think we were getting behind schedule with the slow going into the wind.

According to reports from the dining level, there were two large crashes from the galley as a large number of plates crashed to the floor when the large swell hit.

We got back to the third island, and after a struggle got the boat docked. We got out and got on a bus for a short tour of the island. What a cool little island with rolling hills and great views. We stopped at a beautiful Greek Orthodox church and took a short tour inside. This church is also a tribute to Saint Niktorius. The woodwork inside was incredible !

We got back on the ship after a bit of touring the local town, and they served up lunch. It was good, but after they got some Karaoke type stuff going, it was back to the top deck. It was a much smoother cruise home and we got to watch the sun set as we made it back to port.

It was disappointing we missed the first two islands. It was still interesting, and I think it was well worth dealing with the initial bad weather. Here is an album of pictures from the cruise:

Greek Island Cruise

The Agora and Temple of Zeus

There was a torch lighting at the start, but we missed it. There is a close-up picture of the torch in the album.

The start was orderly and well done. I took pictures of the elites starting, and then looped back through the start.

I caught up to Jeff Galloway and the one-minute run, one-minute walk group. We made our way past the Marathon battle monument.

There were some interesting points on the early part of the course with nice views of the hills and even some wineries.

Water, “isotonic drinks”, and gels were available very frequently on the course. The water was in full bottles ! So you grabbed a bottle, took a couple of swigs and tossed it. There were firemen or medics with some sort of cooling spray, and you could get sprayed down to your heart’s content.

Crowd support was not intense, but there were a few locals cheering us on. We were in the back-of-the-pack, so some of their enthusiasm may have worn off by the time we passed.

I had the privilege of running with Jeff Galloway for quite a ways. We had a good talk about marathon running and training. At 34 kilometers I said goodbye to Jeff and began walking and waited for the Florida gang to catch up. They were only a few minutes behind.

Gold caught up with me and we did some calculations, and figured we would finish a bit after 5 hours. We were doing well and had arrived in central Athens.

The last section of the course was interesting, with the last stretch a downhill section lined with orange trees (loaded with oranges) into the 1896 Olympic stadium.

The stadium finish was really cool. There was a good crowd in the stadium cheering on the finishers. The finish amenities were as good as anything I have seen, with medals, beverages, and a bag of stuff presented to each finisher.

We met the tour group Apostolos which provided some additional stuff and took custom pictures.

They got us out of there on buses, and we got back to the hotel and collapsed.

Pictures:

Athens Marathon

We enjoyed fantastically beautiful weather, dry and sunny with a few clouds to make the photos more interesting.

The tour company set up a meeting to distribute the race stuff (numbers, chips, t-shirts and the usual assorted junk). Jeff Galloway pitched his philosophy on training and running marathons. It’s far different than anything I have tried, so I will think about applying his ideas to my running.

Everyone is excited and ready for the race to begin.

Here are the pictures from today:

Athens Saturday

Pictures:
Friday in Athens

Athens Thursday

Check back here for reports and pictures over the next week.

I rarely read novels about running.  I’m usually drawn to technical works on running.  The book “Born To Run” by Christopher McDougall is an odd combination of both.  Sort of.

Most of the “running” in the book is most likely not what a typical reader would associate with that term.  This is a book about “ultrarunning”, which by strict definition means any race 50 kilometers or longer.  For users of the Anglo-American system of measure, that’s about 31.1 miles.  In this book the races under discussion are either 50 or 100 miles in length.

This is not mainstream stuff.  Standard road racing up to the marathon distance is somewhat known to the typical person-on-the-street thanks to the Olympics.  “Ultrarunning ?”

Ultrarunning is really obscure stuff !  Apparently the book is moving up on the bestseller list.  I’m a bit shocked by this.  I figure you have to be very much into running for this book to capture your attention.  It is written in a style which is a hybrid of a novel and documentary.  It’s my impression that all of the events described are non-fictional.  The author is a good storyteller with some tendency for long-windedness.

The book’s focus is on a remote region of Mexico inhabited by a tribe known as the Tarahumara.  This tribe was pushed into this region, the Sierra Madre, and more specifically the region of the “Copper Canyon”.  Copper Canyon is significantly wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon.  But it’s most important feature is it’s remoteness.  It is here the Tarahumara retreated from advancing Spanish and Mexican settlers.  The canyon area served them as a gigantic natural fortress.

The author seems to have stumbled onto the Tarahumara during his travels to Mexico as a journalist.  He also explains his personal problems with running, and his visits to various sports medicine experts.  He got nowhere with the “experts”, and he seems to be seeking a medicine man in the Mexican outback.

Sprinkled throughout the book are all-out attacks on the running shoe industry.  If indeed this book hits the big-time mainstream best-seller list, it will be interesting to see if the multi-billion dollar running shoe industry responds.  What I see in this book is a lot of anti-running shoe ranting, minimal support for these arguments, and most of the protagonists wearing various forms of running shoes.  I’m not saying there might be some merit in attacking running shoe design, but I don’t see much in the way of good science here to support this.

The proponent of “barefoot running” exits the stage with his feet heavily bandaged.

The chapters on ultrarunning center on a race called the “Leadville 100″.  This left me with a vivid picture of what must the real core of ultrarunning culture.  Life should be what makes you happy and should provide you with the greatest utility.  If you would like to expend a great deal of energy to participate in a dangerous and obscure sport this is for you.  For the rest of us it provides some entertainment watching other people pushing their bodies to the limit.  How far and fast can they go ?

A scholarly discussion asks the question “Did human evolve as running animals ?”.  It’s fairly convincing and interesting reading.  I especially enjoyed the discussion of “persistence hunting”.  If you have vegatarian tendencies you may want to skip these chapters.

The climax of the book is a race, and I don’t think this will be a spoiler to mention this, in the Tarahumara home country.  The organizer of this event is a mysterious and weird fellow with alias “Caballo Blanco” who seems to be forever running around the Copper Canyon in his Teva sandals.  This ghost-like person somehow puts together an impossible assemblage of Tarahumara and gringo ultrarunners for a 50 mile race.  Getting the Tarahumara to participate is a major roadblock, but when it finally happens there seems to be plenty of the elements of modern civilization appearing- hotels, cold beers, and internet connections.  The crowd goes wild and gets really drunk.  It’s better than NASCAR (and I’ve been to the Daytona 500 three times).

I’m not going to recommend this book to anyone other than very serious runners, members of the running shoe industry, or any ultrarunner.  I hope I’m wrong and it has a wider readership.  More importantly, if it gets a few couch potatoes  into exercise that would be even better.  It’s a fast read, with some difficulty following the multi-threaded plot leading to the big race.  I’m glad I read it, and I look forward to the great running shoe debate which will surely follow for the next several years.